Chelsea shape up for league start with one eye on Robinho

Robinho joined Real Madrid from Brazilian side Santos in July 2005. Photograph: J L Roca/AFP

The prospects of Chelsea adding the Brazilian forward Robinho to their ranks before the Premier League season starts should become clearer over the next 48 hours because he is expected to meet Real Madrid's sporting director, Predrag Mijatovic, in London over the weekend.

Robinho has become Luiz Felipe Scolari's principal target in the transfer market now that the manager has assessed his squad on their pre-season tour of Asia and Russia. Indeed Peter Kenyon, the Chelsea chief executive, was sufficiently confident that the 24-year-old could be lured to Stamford Bridge in a deal likely to cost in excess of £25m that he went public last week on the club's interest in signing him, although he conceded that it might take time to reach an agreement.

As Chelsea prepare to take on Lokomotiv Moscow in the Railways Cup this evening Robinho will be in England with Real for the Emirates Cup, to be hosted by Arsenal, and Real are set to make their commitment to keeping him more obvious. Mijatovic is expected to offer him a five-year deal, worth an initial £2.5m a year for the first two seasons and rising to £3.5m for the remaining term, to persuade him to stay at the Bernabéu.

Robinho's camp has sent out mixed messages as to where his future lies. He himself suggested last week that he would be happy to remain in Spain, but his representative, Wagner Ribeiro, has publicly courted potential suitors. Real's coach, Bernd Schuster, has expressed a desire to retain him, particularly given the Spanish club's inability to prise Cristiano Ronaldo away from Manchester United, and welcomed him back to the team's training base in Austria this week after his recovery from a groin strain.

Scolari remains relaxed about whether the signing will go through as he considers a side against Lokomotiv today that will be indicative of the team to face Portsmouth in the first league game. "If we add player A, player B or player C, then great," he said. "But I have good players with quality already."

Chelsea may start with Andriy Shevchenko, after Milan conceded that they would not be able to take the Ukrainian back to San Siro this summer.

Scolari, aware of Roman Abramovich's desire for a certain style to go with success, said: "I am not contracted to play pretty but for Chelsea to win championships. If you play well and win championships, then great. This is the philosophy that the owner wants. There wasn't a situation that Roman said to me: 'We have to play beautiful.' He is very simple, calm, calm. He said, 'Do better for Chelsea.' That's it."